Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Name thr college or this is meaningless.

I’m trying to stay anonymous. It’s one of Colby, Bates, Bowdoin.

Well your friends must live under a rock if they have never heard of those

95% of the population outside of New England couldn't name the state that those colleges are in.

Anonymous wrote:My favorite posted College Confidential story of all time was that Grandpa in China never heard of this school that grandson was going to. Very deep concern- was this school any good? Would they get a decent education?

Grandson was attending Princeton.

There is no school so fantastic and so prestigious that EVERYONE has heard of it and would be impressed.

lol I can totally believe that. There’s one exception and it’s Harvard, for random historical reasons. It’s the only one.

I would not have been familiar with these schools, but I don’t think that’s bad. Unless you go to a very elite schools, you will find that schools tend to trade on very regional reputations. I went to the University of Virginia, and I cannot even tell you how many times I’ve gotten a blank stare or “what does that stand for” when I’ve said UVA.

My favorite posted College Confidential story of all time was that Grandpa in China never heard of this school that grandson was going to. Very deep concern- was this school any good? Would they get a decent education?

Grandson was attending Princeton.

There is no school so fantastic and so prestigious that EVERYONE has heard of it and would be impressed.

My son graduated from Grinnell. As my dear friend who is a professor at Georgetown told me "While people who learn about different colleges by watching football on TV have never heard of Grinnell, those of us who sit on adcom's most definitely know about Grinnell."

His partner also graduated from Grinnell. She had 3 different PI's vying for her to join their neuroscience lab because they all saw Grinnell and knew she was smart, motivated, and a fast learner. Funny thing is, none of the PI's themselves went to Grinnell - in academia, its reputation speaks for itself. Her PI is now her advisor as she's in the PhD program at the R1 university where she landed.

OP, if your kid is going to Colby, Bates, or Bowdoin - congrats.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Name thr college or this is meaningless.

I’m trying to stay anonymous. It’s one of Colby, Bates, Bowdoin.

Well your friends must live under a rock if they have never heard of those

Except snobs, no one knows about these outside of the families whose children are attending these schools.

For snobs, the SLAC marketing is a way to feel like they have some exclusive club.

And for SLAC parents, we're just happy our students are attending good schools with strong outcomes for what our children are interested in,

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Name thr college or this is meaningless.

I’m trying to stay anonymous. It’s one of Colby, Bates, Bowdoin.

Well your friends must live under a rock if they have never heard of those

Except snobs, no one knows about these outside of the families whose children are attending these schools.

For snobs, the SLAC marketing is a way to feel like they have some exclusive club.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Name thr college or this is meaningless.

I’m trying to stay anonymous. It’s one of Colby, Bates, Bowdoin.

Well your friends must live under a rock if they have never heard of those

My kid goes to a selective LAC in the Northeast. We live in the South. She says I go to ___ college in ___ state.

Who the heck cares if no one has heard of it? She loves it and she knows it's a great school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve never heard of Bates, I’m aware of Colby but no one ever talks about it IRL, and I’ve only ever seen Bowdoin mentioned on this board.

So you know nothing about good schools. Got it.

There are less students at those collective schools together than there are in the undergraduate population of Harvard.

Anonymous wrote:My kid went to Northwestern University for undergrad. Relatives in Michigan assumed it was Northwestern Michigan College, a community college in Traverse City. When kid went to grad school in Texas, people assumed he had gone to Northwestern State University in Louisiana. There are apparently quite a few colleges that are subjects of such confusion, & high-quality schools are not immune.

Went to Wesleyan. There are more with similar name than the one in CT apparently. And sometimes people confuse it with Wellesly.

Anonymous wrote:I’ve never heard of Bates, I’m aware of Colby but no one ever talks about it IRL, and I’ve only ever seen Bowdoin mentioned on this board.

So you know nothing about good schools. Got it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For what it's worth when I went to MIT there was a certain subset of my family who thought it was like ITT Tech. My standard reply was " yeah, it's something like that." I hope she thoroughly enjoys her experience.

We had family members think Caltech was CalPoly. Also encountered many blank faces when my son said he went to Caltech.

In the case of Caltech, it's the nation's most difficult school at which to gain admission, according to some sources. People unfamiliar with Caltech would seem to be particularly unfamiliar with colleges not to have heard of this school.

Most people (including those very successful in their fields) don’t know or care about your tiny school in Maine. If your goal was to impress people with the name of your college, you picked the wrong college.

Anonymous wrote:For what it's worth when I went to MIT there was a certain subset of my family who thought it was like ITT Tech. My standard reply was " yeah, it's something like that." I hope she thoroughly enjoys her experience.

We had family members think Caltech was CalPoly. Also encountered many blank faces when my son said he went to Caltech.